1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting method and a liquid ejecting apparatus that has a liquid ejecting unit that is capable of ejecting a liquid such as ink.
2. Related Art
In a liquid ejecting apparatus such as an ink jet printer for example, an image or the like is printed on a target such as a paper sheet by ejecting ink as an example of a liquid from nozzles of a liquid ejecting head (an example of a liquid ejecting unit). In addition, liquid ejecting apparatuses of this kind are provided with ink cartridges that store ink, and are configured so that printing is interrupted and ink cartridge exchange is prompted when a residual amount of ink that is inside the ink cartridges reaches ink depletion. For example, when printing is interrupted, since printing is initiated with an ink that had temporarily dried up after ink cartridge exchange and this causes defects such as streaks being formed at the boundaries thereof, it is preferable to know beforehand whether or not ink depletion that causes an interruption in printing will occur in the middle of printing.
JP-A-11-5300 discloses a recording device that performs a warning of ink depletion beforehand, prior to the initiation of printing. In such a recording device, the number of ink droplets that have been emitted in printing processes and the number of egested ink droplets due to cleaning actions and flashing actions are counted by a dot counter for each color, and the obtained emitted dot number is delivered to residual ink amount detection means of a recording material exhaustion warning device. The recording material exhaustion warning device calculates a residual amount of ink for each color on the basis of a received emitted dot number. In addition, a required amount of ink is calculated on the basis of count values of the dot numbers of a concentrated bitmap and a pale bitmap after a halftone process by a halftone module or the sum of gradation values of individual gradation bit image data for each color after color correction processing using a color correction module. A warning message or the like is displayed on a warning unit as a result of the residual amount of ink and the required amount of ink being compared by ink consumption amount determination means.
However, in the recording device disclosed in JP-A-11-5300, since the required amount of ink is calculated on the basis of binary data of concentrated and pale after a halftone process or the sum of gradation values of individual gradation bit image data for each color after color correction processing using a color correction module, it is possible to calculate a comparatively accurate required amount of ink, but the calculation time is long. Therefore, even in a case in which ink depletion does not occur in the middle of printing and thus, a warning is not necessary, there is a problem in that it takes time for the device to initiate a printing action after a user gives an instruction to print. Additionally, this is not limited to ink jet printers, and the same problem also applies to liquid ejecting apparatuses that eject liquids other than ink.